Karnaphuli Tunnel

Eviction drive at Anwara suspended till Mar 20

Published : Sunday, 17 March, 2019 at 12:00 AM Count : 636

Nurul Amin

CHATTOGRAM, Mar 16: The eviction drive conducted on the acquired land for the Karnaphuli Tunnel at Anowara has been suspended again till March 20.The district administration started the eviction drive last Thursday. But the affected owners of the land had protested against the drive.The owners alleged that they had not yet received the compensation money. Besides, they have not yet been rehabilitated as per the commitment of the local administration.Meanwhile, the Land Minister Saifuzzanman Chowdhury Javed, MP, of the locality directed the district administrations to stop the eviction drive till March 20.The Land Minister convened an emergency meeting at his Ministry in Dhaka on Wednesday to solve the problem.The Tunnel authority, district administration, land ministry officials, local representatives and the representatives of the affected land owners are supposed to attend the meeting. The authorities had tried to evict the land owners from the acquired land on January 6 that had been halted following a blockade programme by the affected people.Meanwhile, more than 300 families had been affected by the project.The Tunnel authority has already prepared a 20-acre piece of land for the rehabilitation of the affected land owners.Meanwhile, the construction works of ten kilometre long approach road have begun in January at the Anowara end of the tunnel.On February 24, the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the first ever Tunnel under the river Karnaphuli named after Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Prime Minister inaugurated the drilling, main works of the Karnaphuli Multi-lane tunnel at Patenga end of the project. The tunnel is being built at a cost of Tk 9,880 crore to turn Chattogram into 'One City Two Towns.'The total length of the proposed tunnel will be around 9.092 kilometres, including 3.50 kilometres of tunnel under the Karnaphuli River with an approach road of 4.89 kilometres alongside 740 metres of bridges linking the main port city and western side of the Karnaphuli with the heavy industrial area on the eastern side of the river. It will cut the road distance between Chattogram and Cox's Bazar, apart from easing the traffic on Dhaka-Chittagong Highway entering the port city to go to other parts of Chattogram division.